Some days you just shouldn’t try too hard

Parenting can feel like a competition some days. Is you house spotless? Are your kids off to school with shiny shoes and tidy hair? It can be particularly bad at the end of term. Have you made cakes for the school fair, donated a bottle for the tombola, attended the end of term play and made it to parents’ evening? You can end up  feeling under pressure.

This week, the Family Friendly Working blog is looking at coaching. You may think that coaching is all about achieving perfection, but it doesn’t have to be like that. Sometimes you just need to decide what are important goals, and then also make a conscious decision that some things in life are NOT important. In her post, Fake It ‘till You Make It, Aussie Mumpreneur Karen Miles has some tips on how to fake parenthood when you need some breathing space:

1. Catch an episode of Play School and copy one of their art projects (even download their website templates) then marvel at your early childhood education skills. Your toddler will bask in your greatness.

2. Keep wicker baskets in every room to toss toys into at the end of the day and call your decorating style ‘country eclectic’.

3. Hide the laundry pile at the back of a cupboard when friends or family come over and enjoy your ‘tidy’ home for a few hours.

4. Better still, ‘home-bake’ some mini apple pies for mother’s group / school courtesy of the local bakery. Sprinkle a dusting of icing sugar over the pies after taking to them with a rolling pin (to squash them up a bit to make them look ‘truly’ home-made).

Karen says: “Cut yourself some slack. Laugh at the chaos of your life (you may as well), and give yourself the space to be ok as you are. Cut the smaller corners that will help you get through the day. Often your own expectations of yourself far exceed those of your kids or other people.”

 So, when the pressure to be a perfect parent is mounting, ask yourself what is really important. Shove the laundry under the counter, send in bought cakes (with a little bit of home made icing on top ), sit back and spend some time enjoying family life.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 10:23 am and is filed under coaching mums, house and home, time management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.